Toy story is not just child’s play

Millions of us were brought up on the likes of Matchbox and Scalextric. But for many, it seems this passion never left us as we swapped our model cars for real, full-size versions.

In fact, some of us can’t stand parting with our original mini-replicas, Honda’s new survey of over 2,000 adults suggests.

So let’s look at the facts:

Stat attack
– One in five of us (22%) still can’t kick the toy car habit, regardless if our children are about or not

– Roughly half of us enthusiasts aren’t ashamed to carry on playing, even if other grown-ups are around

– Nearly three in 10 of us have kept hold of the toy models so beloved in our childhoods

– One in 10 of us secretly store away our highly-prized imitation vehicles

– Almost 7% of us proudly place our collection on show

– 13% of us have been given toy motors as a present… in our adulthood

– 6% wish we had have been given such a gift… but are still waiting for one

– 21% of us have had such a toy handed down through the family

– 21% of us also hand down our own toy cars to younger family members

– … But 3.4% are sorry that we showed such charity

– 3.4% also jealously refuse to let toy vehicles out of our possession
Still crazy after all these years
But don’t just take Honda’s word for it.

Toy News also found that adults still have child-like enthusiasm for all things toy cars in a survey earlier this year. The trade magazine wanted to discover the favourite all-time toys.

Toy cars had two entries in the top 10 alone. Scalextric and Matchbox came in at fourth and eighth respectively.4 classic toy cars
Scalextric: Slot-car racing never came more thrilling than this beauty. Players were invited to loop-the-loop, race figure-of-eights and tread that narrow line between achieving maximum throttle and departing the track.

Matchbox: Now owned by Mattel, Matchbox die-cast cars were as part of the 1970s play scene as Action Man, Barbie and Chopper bikes. Trucks, milk floats and Formula 1 cars all competed against each other in the race tracks of the young imagination.

Corgi: Kept ahead of the game in its 1960s/70s heyday by bringing out facsimiles of popular motors from big and small screens. Its James Bond Aston Martin, Batmobile and The Saint’s iconic Volvo P1800 were all smash hits.

Tonka: Supplied perhaps the most invincible vehicles of all. Tonka trucks were as teak-tough as a WWE wrestler in bullet-proof armour and as durable as The Mousetrap. No wonder parents were in no rush to get them damage-insured.